-Kehinde Gaji

Elizabeth Coker was a very hardworking woman. She was smart, diligent and, according to most of the people who had the privilege of working with her, “She always delivers.” She was also the beautiful wife of Tom Coker and the mother of Evelyn Coker.

The Coker family was a highly respected and picture perfect family. Tom Coker was a very skilled and popular business man and Evelyn was said to take after both her father and her mother with her good looks and numerous achievements. She was already the student council president, a position reserved for students in their final year, even though she was in her second year of high school.

On just another Friday, Elizabeth got up very early. She had to get to work very early because it was the last working day of the month. The day every member of the administrative board at the company she was working held their monthly meetings. The meetings involved them talking about the activities of the company that month, issues that came up and how they could be solved. Her opinions were something that many members of the board looked forward to.

Evelyn woke up drenched in sweat from a dream with so much blood that she hardly remembered any other thing. She was not the type to get scared at the sight of blood but the problem was, her dreams always came true.

Tom had dreamt of a very beautiful painting of a three-leaved clover. While still admiring the painting, the clover on the left side got ripped off very fast, bringing the dream to an abrupt end. For some reason, the dream sat with him like a poorly digested meal. He felt uneasy. His instincts were screaming that something terrible was going to happen. It took a lot to stay in the bathroom, preparing for the day as if nothing were out of place. He was shaving with a steadiness that was at odds with his feelings when Elizabeth walked into the bathroom.

“Liz, shall we skip work today? It’s a beautiful day and we haven’t done that in a while. We can go on a date or something,” He had not thought about it before the words came tumbling out. They were like a safety line.

“That sounds fun and all but no thanks. I’m down for that tomorrow though” she halfheartedly replied.

“Hey, have you seen my… Oh there it is” she said while picking up a small jotter she had left in the bathroom cabinet.

Tom sighed. He knew it wouldn’t work, it was worth a try though.
‘There’s no need to put to much thought into it. Today’s probably going to be a normal Friday’ he thought

Elizabeth was going to be the first person to leave the house that day. She was already dressed and having breakfast when Evelyn plopped herself on the empty chair in front of her and said

“I don’t think you should go out today mum.” She said with a grim expression on her face.

“Why?”

She knew that saying she had a bad feeling because of a dream she had would only leave her mother laughing since she was the kind of person that doesn’t really believe in dreams: so she said, “I’m sick.”

“You’re sick?!”

Elizabeth got up and put her hand on her daughter’s forehead.

“You’re not burning up or anything though. You probably need rest. I can drop you off at the clinic or you can just stay at home today”

Realizing that she definitely wouldn’t able to change her mother’s mind, she sighed and said

“Nevermind, I’ll be fine.”

Elizabeth was ready to go to work. She kissed Tom and pinched Evelyn’s cheek laughing at the expression her daughter made.

“You guys shouldn’t miss me too much. How about we all come back as early as we can today and go out?
We haven’t eaten out in a while”

“Sure, sounds like a plan” Tom said

“I should probably be the one saying that, I always get back early.” Evelyn said

“I’ll come back really early today, you’ll see”

“Promise?”

“Yes, I Elizabeth Coker promise to get home before my doubtful daughter” she said laughing

She grabbed her car key and went out of the house.

Tom went to work and he had a pretty normal Friday, he signed a bunch of papers, supervised his juniors and other business related things while Evelyn went to school and carried out her student council president duties.

Evelyn left school as early as she could. By 3:00, she was already in front of her house. There was no way her mother was going to beat that.
After opening the gate, she realized the door was already open. None of her parents’ cars were in the garage which was very weird. She opened the door and she walked in.

She met her mother in the living room. Elizabeth had a very wide grin which was probably due to the fact that she got home very early. Early enough to have dropped her bag in her room and not be wearing shoes.
Evelyn smiled, she hadn’t seen her mom that happy in a while.

“Welcome home, my doubtful daughter.”

There was something strange about her mother though. She had this distant look in her eyes

“Did something happen? You seem different.”

“I got to fulfill a promise I made to my daughter, I’m just really happy,” she said, still grinning from ear to ear.

She heard her Father’s car from outside

“Wow, Dad’s actually back early too.”

Tom had driven home as fast as he could.
When he got home, he frantically got out of his car and ran into the house. He saw Elizabeth seated on the couch and Evelyn standing in front of her. He walked over to Elizabeth and stared into her eyes.

“Welcome home,” she said with the same wide smile she had given Evelyn

Tom’s eyes widened.

“No way…” He started moving backwards with tears falling from his eyes.

“Dad, what’s wrong?”

“Your mother is……”

Just then, the music that had been playing on the television for a while suddenly stopped. A man started talking, it was a news reporter.

“We interrupt this program to bring you news. There has been a ghastly car accident on Stevenson bridge involving two cars. Sadly, only one of the drivers survived. The second driver’s face was damaged and the police need a family member or loved one to identify the victim.”

Evelyn recognized her mother’s car as one of the cars involved in the accident and the driver that survived was a young man in his early twenties.

Kehinde Gaji is a final year student of the Department of English and Portuguese Studies at the Lagos State University.